The Long March: How the Details Shaped History

If the Long March undertaken by the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army had lacked all those details, the snow-covered mountains and vast grasslands, the hunger and cold that drove people to the brink, the brushes with death, the heart-stirring decisions and disagreements, and the dangers, crises, and sacrifices at every turn, would it still have captured the world's attention? Would it still fill us with such awe and emotion?

When we look up to them as “great,” perhaps all they felt at the time was their own insignificance and helplessness. When we praise them as “glorious,” perhaps all they felt was suffering and pain. When we judge their actions “correct,” perhaps all they felt at the time was confusion and uncertainty.

Drawing on hundreds of memoirs, diaries, and documentary works about the Long March, this book carefully gathers and organizes the scattered details within them. Through these “smallest building blocks” of historical memory, it seeks to offer readers the most original, truthful, and vivid account possible of the people, events, environment, politics, military affairs, logistics, and other aspects of the Long March, restoring it in its “raw, unvarnished” form.